Hollywood loves a good redemption story, especially when it involves one of its own. Rare is the actor lucky enough to make it big in Tinseltown, rarer still the actor lucky enough to make it big twice. Here are 10 of Hollywood’s best comebacks, from burnouts who clawed their way out of addiction to singing puppets given a new lease on life.

10. Mickey Rourke

Rourke, 63, made a name for himself as a pretty-boy leading man in the '80s, and then tossed that promising career trajectory for professional boxing. That pretty face didn’t last under the strain of many fists, and when Rourke emerged from self-imposed exile to take up acting again, it was with a significantly changed looks and career prospects. He’s moved on to weirdos, villains and dudes who generally have their faces pummeled – and it's great, especially in “The Wrestler,” where his turn as an aging pro wrestler is howling with regret and earned Rourke an Oscar nomination.

9. Michael Keaton

It’s a long way to fall from Batman, and Keaton, 64, fell long and hard. There were occasional bright spots after he passed on the cape and cowl (“Jackie Brown”), but it was mostly an embarrassing run of paycheck projects (“Jack Frost,” “Herbie Fully Loaded”), until “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” nailed exactly what was so melancholy about his career trajectory. About a faded Hollywood actor best known for playing a superhero, the best-picture-winning film helped Keaton take flight again, mostly recently in a second best-picture-winning film, “Spotlight.”

8. Neil Patrick Harris

Playing the boy doctor on “Doogie Howser, M.D.” must have felt like a blessing and a curse for Harris after he aged out of being a child actor. The role became a punch line, and in the decade that followed the actor was largely relegated to the stage and unmemorable television roles. Then two magical things happened: “How I Met Your Mother” and “Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog,” roles that made Harris’ awesomeness a matter of public consciousness. Now you can’t turn without tripping over Harris, 42, who’s won a Tony for his Broadway turn in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” hosted every major award show, including the Oscars, and played a very memorable role in 2014’s “Gone Girl.”

Neil Patrick Harris (seen in 2015) bounced back after being a child star in the 1980s.(Photo: Jamal Countess/Getty Images)

7. Matthew McConaughey

The Texas heartthrob’s career started out promisingly, with an endlessly quotable role in “Dazed and Confused” and a big break in the John Grisham adaptation “A Time to Kill.” Then came a decade of disposable romantic comedies: “The Wedding Planner,” “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Failure to Launch," etc. (During this fallow period, he also starred in “Tiptoes,” the worst movie ever made. Gary Oldman plays a dwarf, for heaven’s sake. Get drunk and rent it.) How, then, did McConaughey, 46, win a best-actor Oscar for 2013’s “Dallas Buyers Club"? He clearly fired his agent, because the comeback that followed was so sudden and great it required its own portmanteau: "McConaissance."

6. John Travolta

One day you’re the lead in moves as iconic as “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease,” the next you’re pulling paychecks for “Look Who’s Talking” sequels. The one-time Academy Award nominee's career had completely stalled when bold new kid Quentin Tarantino pulled out the defibrillators and cast the actor in “Pulp Fiction.” The role revived his career with a vengeance, placing him so firmly on the A-list that not even the “Battlefield Earth” debacle could knock him off. Travolta, 62, is about due for another career revival, but maybe two stratospheric comebacks in one lifetime is too much to hope for.

5. Drew Barrymore

Barrymore, 41, was the ultimate poster child for child star burnouts. The scion of the legendary Barrymore family stole the world’s heart as pigtailed Gertie in “E.T.” and then within a decade had been in and out of rehab. Sudden superstardom coupled with a dysfunctional home life plummeted the actress into a drug habit that seemed destined to end in tragedy. But she had a lot of people rooting for her (including her godfather, Steven Spielberg), and has come out the other side a successful producer and romantic-comedy mainstay.

4. The Muppets

Jim Henson’s talented puppet menagerie was a box-office hit in films like “The Muppet Movie,” “The Great Muppet Caper” and “The Muppets Take Manhattan.” After Henson’s death in 1990, there was a precipitous drop in quality with such cinematic outings as “Muppet Treasure Island” and “Muppets From Space.” The latter was so poorly received it was the last Muppet movie for over a decade, until enthusiastic writer/actor Jason Segel revived the franchise with a colorful musical about reuniting the down-and-out Muppets. Thankfully, it worked, and became the highest-grossing Muppet film.

The Muppets(Photo: Disney Enterprises)

3. Ben Affleck

Affleck, 43, has the talent (and the chin) for Hollywood, but for a long time he didn’t have the luck. He burst out of the gate with an unexpected and utterly charming Oscar win for his scrappy screenplay work with buddy Matt Damon on “Good Will Hunting,” and then proceeded to make a mess of his new-found leading-man status with a string of disastrous misfires, including “Pearl Harbor,” “Daredevil” and the dreadful “Gigli,” in which he co-starred with then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. It wasn’t until he turned director for “Gone Baby Gone” in 2007 that we were ready to forgive him the spectacle of Bennifer. And now the man is Batman.

2. Marlon Brando

Brando was electric on screen, a primal force in films like “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “On the Waterfront.” Then came the ’60s and a string of box-office failures. He was critically reviled and notoriously difficult to work with, and his self-indulgence and declining looks threatened to ignominiously cap his career. Then, the role of a lifetime: Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.” And with that, the faded bad boy became legend.

Bonasera (Frank Puglia) asks Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) for a favor in 1972's "The Godfather," the movie that brought Brando back to the mainstream.(Photo: Paramount Pictures)

1. Robert Downey Jr.

Downey’s career was nearly little more than a cautionary Hollywood tale. A dazzling talent with charisma to burn, Downey graduated from Brat Pack films to Oscar-nominated roles in prestige dramas before burning out in the mid-'90s on drugs. Multiple arrests, failed drug tests and stints in rehab made the actor all but uninsurable. But some old friends and sympathetic souls (including Mel Gibson) took chances on Downey, 51, who now makes more money in his sleep than most of us will in our entire lives. Downey as Ironman is still the best casting decision Marvel has ever made.

Reach the reporter at barbara.vandenburgh@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8371. Twitter.com/BabsVan.